U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,773 issued Jan. 14, 1975 and owned by the assignee of this invention discloses a machine for applying carriers having apertures therein to a group of bottles, the carriers preferably being formed of yieldable plastic material. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,773, a vertically reciprocable plunger is disposed above a group of articles and is provided with a carrier holder mounted on the plunger by a lost motion relationship and the carriers are fed horizontally from a hopper into the holder which during downward movement of the plunger causes the carrier to settle into a position immediately above the group of articles from which position the carrier is driven onto the articles by the plunger.